Airbnb accelerates direct investments into hotels

Airbnb accelerates direct investments into hotels

Airbnb has invested between $100 – $200 million in one of the world’s fastest growing hotel businesses, Oyo. The investment was made public yesterday by Oyo without revealing full details, analysts and media reporting on the $100 – $200 million sum all quote a person with ‘full knowledge’ of the details.

Earlier this month Airbnb announced plans to spend circa $465 million acquiring HotelTonight, that deal, coupled with this latest move surely signals Airbnb’s intent to further expand the company’s customer proposition directly with hotels.

Oyo was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal and like Airbnb started as a platform to book budget hotels. Oyo now has about 460,000 rooms across eight countries including India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. It claims to be one of the top five hospitality chains in China, where it has more than 5,000 hotels in 280 cities.

Earlier this year Fred Reid, former CEO at Virgin America was brought into the senior management team at Airbnb to create wider partnerships in the industry, seems like an effective appointment.